The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
by nulluscastitudo
Summary: Charlotte couldn't be happier with her role as the organized and meticulous PA to Stephanie McMahon so when a move to the chaos of the recently branded NXT creative team turns her world upside down the last thing she needs is to be caught up in the tangled mess that is Dean Ambrose's life. [rating may need to change in later chapters]
1. Chapter 1

Charlotte was, to put it mildly, not a girl who was going to be intimidated. Working in her industry simply didn't allow for any uncharted moments of weakness of even the possibility of letting her guard down for a second. She hadn't managed to claw her way to her dream job through niceties and her warm demeanor, she had got there through sheer hard work and more ruthlessness than anyone should need. Working as a PA to Stephanie McMahon was never a walk in the park and nor did Charlotte feel it should be. Stephanie was intelligent, articulate and refused to answer to anyone except her father and while most people found that terrifying to Charlotte it made perfect sense. Striding through the backstage of the various arenas they visited, keeping perfectly matched pace with Stephanie was absolutely where she was meant to be. It was as if every piece of her intricately assembled puzzle was now in place and she felt entirely content.

Charlotte had been in her position for 2 years now and so was beginning to get accustomed to her monthly performance reviews. While not exactly intimidated by Stephanie she was certainly the closest anyone got to making Charlotte feel uncomfortable and that was bad enough as far as she was concerned. Sitting in the hallway outside Stephanie's main office in Stamford Charlotte waited slightly impatiently to be called in for her review. Although she appreciated the theory behind these annual meetings she felt that, given her exemplary record and undeniable skills in her job these reviews were somewhat of a formality for her and, given the huge amount of work she had to keep up with in the run up to Survivor Series, also a completely ineffective use of her time. If it was up to her….

"Ahem, when you're ready"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of her boss. Looking surprised to find the usually focussed Charlotte lost in her thoughts Stephanie stepped aside to let her assistant enter the room and take her seat.

"Well, as you know I usually start these things by giving you an overview of how we feel you've performed over the last year but to be blunt that's an absolute waste of both our time. You've far exceeded anything we could have expected of you Charlotte and you've been an unbelievable help these last 2 years…"

Something about that last sentence didn't seem to be quite sitting right, it just seemed so final, was she being fired?

"… You've not just performed in your PA role but your assistance in the direction of the company has not gone unnoticed, your input on the creative side of things has been an absolute blessing for us and the board and I feel like you're being wasted as a resource in your current role."

"You're firing me for being too good at my job?" exclaimed Charlotte disbelievingly.

"Oh dear god no, not at all, far from it. We'd like to offer you a new position within the company. As you know we're focussing a great deal of time and money on the regeneration of our developmental programme. We firmly believe that NXT is the future of the company and as such it's going to be used not just as a training environment for the in-ring talent but also for the backstage team as well" explained the older woman somewhat vaguely.

"I really don't see where you're going with this …" Charlotte began before being cut off by Stephanie's continued explanation.

"To put you out of your misery and cut a long story short Charlotte we'd like to offer you a creative role within NXT. It's somewhat an amalgamation of your existing role and the writer position I'd like to see you eventually end up in."

"You're offering me a role in creative?" questioned Charlotte astonished. She loved her job and working for WWE was fulfilling a lifelong dream but she was not by any stretch a writer. She had never written as much as a diary since she was 12 and now she was being handed one of the most sought after roles in the business. She was, for possibly the first time ever, at an absolute loss for words.

"Technically, no" explained Stephanie patiently, "You'll still be employed as my PA but we're putting you on secondment to NXT for a few months, you'll be working with the writers and developing talent but I'm also sending you as a peacekeeper. Developmental has been a mess for years and we're hoping to finally bring it together as a cohesive part of the brand with the launch of NXT and to be blunt they could use someone as meticulous and organised as you down there to help whip that office into shape as badly as we need you down there helping the writers keep on track with the direction we want them to be taking these guys in."

Charlotte stared at her in stunned silence for several minutes before taking a final deep breath, taking her pen and neatly printing a signature on the bottom of the paperwork Stephanie had slipped over to her while she was waiting for a response.

The older woman's face lit up in an approving smile and she quickly began explaining the many and varied duties Charlotte would have down in Orlando while Charlotte simply sat in stunned silence at the opportunity she had just been given.


	2. Chapter 2

As with everything in this business Charlottes move to NXT proceeded at lightning pace, but even though she'd known her move would be quick she still found it somewhat of a shock when she suddenly found herself sitting in a sweaty, humid cab heading to Winter Park in Orlando the next week. Due to her minimal possessions it hadn't taken long to pack up her last apartment and one of the admin staff from NXT had been helpful enough to find her a place to stay while she got settled in to Orlando. Feeling the cab stop Charlotte pulled out her cash, picked up her bag and stepped out into the unbearable Florida humidity. She would definitely need to buy some new clothes, in retrospect thinking she could move from Connecticut to Florida without a wardrobe change was naïve in the extreme and she mentally cursed the three quarter sleeves on her black silk blouse as she stepped through the door before relaxing under the cool breeze of the air conditioning. Charlotte took a moment to take in her surroundings before striding confidently towards the reception desk. She made it a grand total of 3 steps before she found herself abruptly stopped by the collision of herself and a solid mass of what, she assumed from the feeling she had of having collided with a brick wall, must have been a wrestler. She put her hands out to steady herself against muscular chest before she glanced up expecting to see an embarrassed face and a hurried apology. To Charlottes surprise she found herself looking up not into the face of an awkwardly embarrassed member of the NXT roster she had been frantically learning since her move here was confirmed but into a face she not only didn't recognise but which certainly looked far from ready to apologise. Underneath wisps of honey blonde curls she stared into cold blue eyes looking not only entirely unembarrassed but completely enraged at the whole incident. Looking into those cold, breath-taking eyes caused Charlotte to freeze entirely for a moment before eventually the intense and furious gaze was too much for her and she finally realised that she was still pressed against this man's chest and that she had begun to unconsciously move the tips of her fingers to gently stroke over the smooth muscles she could feel underneath his t-shirt. She felt herself blush even more intensely and stepped back, dusting herself off and mentally shaking herself to eradicate the completely inappropriate thoughts that had begun to form. "S-sorry" she managed to mutter before taking one last look into those entirely distracting eyes and edging to the side to step around and continue her walk to the desk. As she did she felt him move very slightly to the side and felt a soft breath against her ear as an unexpected voice rasp "Don't worry about it sunshine" far closer to her ear than was entirely necessary. She stopped still again, frozen once again by this stranger and by the time she managed to compose herself enough to turn back around he had left the foyer entirely. "Pull yourself together girl" she muttered to herself under her breath before resuming her walk to the reception desk, albeit at a considerably more measure pace than before. 


	3. Chapter 3

After introducing herself to the (slightly smirking) girl at the front desk Charlotte was given directions to a conference room and handed a visitor pass as her own had, the girl explained, not been finished yet. Feeling entirely like she was reliving her first day of school all over again she made her way towards the lift and let out a long breath she hadn't entirely realised she was holding when the doors finally closed, blocking the foyer from view. She turned to the mirrored wall behind her to make sure she didn't look as frazzled as she felt and mentally cursed herself for being so easily shook up by some muscles an averagely, alright slightly above averagely, nice eyes.

Just as she managed to pull herself back together there was a soft 'ding' and the doors slid open. Charlotte stepped out into the corridor and, seeing the room she was looking for, darted down the hall and rapped on the door. Hearing no reply she eventually eased the door open slightly before gingerly sticking her head around the door. She had prepared herself to be awkwardly faced with a conference table full of suits and the occasionally binder so the full scale of the chaos she was staring at left her speechless for a second time. On top of what she could only assume was a table lay piles upon piles of papers varying between stacks of word processed print copies and endless scraps of hastily scribbled notes, the remnants of what she hoped was several months' worth of coffee cups sat next to several chairs and three large posters of the up and coming stars she was here to help out had been stuck haphazardly around the room. In contrast to the immaculately dressed board meetings she was used to preparing for Charlotte couldn't help but feel she had accidentally wandered into the oddly furnished dorm room of an avid wrestling fan rather than what had been emailed to her schedule as an 'Initial Briefing' on the new NXT talent. Eventually she noticed a small group in the midst of the chaos and realised she had eventually managed to catch their attention. Taking that as her queue she quickly shut the door behind her, took a deep breath and turned to the group.

"I'm Charlotte, I'm the new PA/Helper/Writer/Whatever you guys need helped out with" she started, "and I'm assuming from looking at this, that's going to include getting this place out of the unworkable mess you guys are pretending to work in at the minute" For a second she felt like the humour may have been wasted on the 4 stressed looking men before one finally broke the silence with a booming laugh.

"I'd say it isn't usually this bad, but to be honest, this was us tidying up before you got here" responded the stocky redhead whom she had made eye contact with earlier. "I'm Daryl and these cheerful folks are John and Shaun" he added gesturing towards the tall, lanky man with thinning grey hair and the slumped figuring half obscured by a mass of curly hair respectively as he leant over to shake her hand. Charlotte smiled uncomfortably at the two men who gave little to no indication they had noticed her entrance at all, far less taken any interest in it, before clearing a space at the desk and opening her laptop.

"Well I guess I've got nothing but time so; let's start from the beginning and get me up to speed."

It was well after midnight when an exhausted Charlotte finally found herself stepping out of a cab and heading towards the door of the apartment one of the guys from down here had arranged for her. She noticed a distinct lack of lights on in the building and couldn't decide if this meant everyone was asleep already or nobody was home yet. Hoping quickly that it would be the former she dug around in her bag for the envelope she had received her key in and cursed under her breath when she felt it drop to the floor with a clunk. As she was standing up from retrieving the key she turned to see a blonde girl in an impossibly tight tank top and what she assumed was supposed to pass for a skirt storm angrily out of the door next to her holding a pair of bright red stilettos in one hand and a small black handbag in the other.

"You're a fucking asshole you know that, this is the last fucking time asshole. The. Last. Fucking. TIME." The girl screamed back into the apartment before staggering angrily across the car park and disappearing into the night.

Charlotte continued frantically trying to get her key into the door lock while avoiding looking into the open doorway and praying she had gone unnoticed. Unfortunately for her the clattering of the key had drawn the attention of the 'Asshole' from inside next door appointment and feeling a shadow looking over her she glanced over before quickly reverting back to staring at the keyhole and hoping against all hope she had been mistaken in her tired state. All hope was lost when she heard a throaty chuckle and an already familiar voice chuckling "Well fancying seeing you hear sunshine".

Charlotte flinched as the memory of her awkward encounter in the foyer came flooding back to her and made a mental note to send an endlessly abusive email to whoever had managed to set her up with an apartment next to this god like man who made her so uncomfortable in so many ways and now appears to have kicked a hooker out of his apartment in the middle of the night.

"It's a pleasure as always, seems like it'll be nice and peaceful living next to you two" muttered Charlotte irritably, unsure if she was more furious at this man for being here of herself for being so easily flustered by him.

"Two?" he asked confused.

"You and your girlfriend" Charlotte spelt out impatiently, wondering if God had somehow given this man so much beauty to make up for an astounding lack of brains.

"Ohhhh" he replied with amusement flickering in his eyes "she's not my girlfriend, she's just some slut, hence why she is no longer in my apartment and why she is now getting in that guys car". He nodded across the car park where the girl was indeed now climbing into the passenger seat of a filthy looking station wagon parked outside of the opposite building.

"Well that makes it much better, thanks for clearing that up" muttered Charlotte before she finally, mercifully, managed to get her front door open.

"You're welcome" smirked the man from next door unashamedly staring her up and down and focusing on the point where her sheer black blouse had stuck itself to her chest after a long, humid day far longer than anyone could have reasonably considered acceptable. Despite the fact had he been anyone else this would have received him at best a warning and at worst a slap she found herself blushing under his gaze and felt her already sticky chest grown hotter as his tongue came out slightly top dampen his bottom lip as he stared at her.

"I'm Jon by the way" he added sticking his hand out.

Despite every sensible bone in her body remind her that she probably did not want to allow herself physical contact with this man who had so easily and quickly gotten under her skin Charlotte politely stuck her hand out to meet his and mumbled "Charlotte" in an entirely uncharacteristic murmur.

As his large, calloused hand gripped her small, delicate palm she felt a tingle seep through her from the hand making contact with his impossibly warm fingers deep into her abdomen in a response that no handshake should ever illicit.

She coughed to clear her throat, convinced anything she said next what come out in the same embarrassing murmur as before.

"Nice to meet you, I'm going to head inside, it's my first day here and I've got an early start tomorrow" she managed to squeeze out in on breath before darting in to the apartment and closing the door as quickly as possible behind her. Not quite quickly enough to see a smirking face underneath those honey blonde curls and hear a deep chuckle as she found herself once again red and flustered after spending all of 2 minutes in this mans company.


	4. Chapter 4

Charlotte groaned and dragged herself out of bed as her phone alarm buzzed across the room. The combination of unbearable humidity and fitful dreams of a now all too familiar man had combined to leave her with one of the worst night's sleep she had suffered since college and the idea of another day in her chaotic new office on a few hours of broken sleep did not fill her with joy. Dragging herself to the bathroom she quickly showered before pulling on the first outfit she found in her suitcase. Halfway to the door the memory of the sheer heat and discomfort of yesterday came flooding back to her and she quickly ran back to change her long-sleeved blouse for a sheer, sleeveless version and removed the tights from underneath her charcoal pencil skirt before hurriedly running out the door. She glanced over at the next apartment as she made her way to the rental car that had been left in the car park for her, half expecting to see a smirking face in the doorway but she was disappointed to see all the shades drawn and the door closed. Thinking to herself that it may have been foolish to expect a man kicking an, umm, visitor out in the middle of the night to be a morning person she chuckled to herself before opening up the rental car and crossing her fingers that someone had the common sense to rent her a car with a navigation system built in.

Thanks to the foresight of the junior assistants who had arranged her accommodation and car Charlotte found herself pulling into an underground garage just 10 minutes later. She quickly parked up and grabbed her bag before heading off towards the elevator and pushing the button for her floor.

"HOLD IT PLEASE", shouted a vaguely familiar voice and Charlotte obligingly held the door open as a face covered for the most part with a huge pair of sunglasses came darting into the elevator.

"Thanks, I would normally have waited but it's the only one in the building and if you miss it then it takes forever to come back down, and I already have no idea where the hell I'm actually meant to be, and so I'm probably going to be late…" the man rambled.

"No problem" Charlotte politely responded.

"I'm Colby by the way" he continued, sticking a tanned hand out in front of her.

"Charlotte", she replied confidently shaking the hand that had been extended to her.

After an awkward few moments there silence was finally broken with a soft ping as the elevator finally reached her floor but she glanced over with a look of confusion as the newly introduced Colby made to step out at the same time. Expecting to be met with a similarly perplexed expression when she glanced over Charlotte was surprised to see the man next to her break out in a genuine grin reaching right up to his deep brown eyes which were now visible behind his long dark eyelashes having eventually removed his sunglasses. Turning away she walked towards the increasingly familiar door from yesterday, trying her best not to picture what chaos could have descended onto the room in the few hours she had been gone. Reaching the door she knocked briefly before opening the door and walking in, jumping back when she turned to close the door behind her only to find the Colby's grinning face in her way.

"You cant be that sick of me already Charlie" grinned Colby stepping around the surprised woman and almost skipping across the room in his eagerness to make it to the coffee table. Deciding to ignore the unwelcome shortening of her name she chose instead to focus on the more pressing question in her mind.

"And you're here because...?" she asked, aware that the tone and wording of the question had probably came across considerably more abrupt than she had meant it to but being far too tired to come up with a more polite turn of phrase.

"Because the meeting's about me and it's rude to talk about people when they're not present." replied Colby simply.

Just as she was about to explain the purpose of the meeting and why adorable men from the elevator were not allowed to simply tag along a sudden realisation hit her.

"You're Seth Rollins" she said.

"I'll answer to pretty much anything but yeah, that's what they're calling me now" responded Colby still with a genuine smile and no hint of impatience with this woman he had just met for the first time attempting to kick him, the soon to be NXT champion, out of a meeting called solely to discuss his career.

"Sorry about that" said Charlotte with a sheepish smile, "When I was getting ready to come down here they gave me all the roster, recent scripts and what I'm guessing these guys thought were the minutes to the last few creative meetings but for some reason it didn't occur to anyone to send me any photos" she continued .

"Don't worry about it" he chuckled waving a hand dismissively "although if you want to make it up to me you could get something that's actually seen a coffee been in the last 3 decades in here for the next meeting. Your coffee sucks man"

"Will do." Charlotte smiled, glad at the apparent absence of the usual ego in this man.

"Well, now that I've been suitably embarrassed on my first full day I guess we should get down to business, your championship reign isn't going to write itself Mr Rollins" she said, regaining her usual professional confidence and gesturing to the seat across from her.

Although the muttering from John and Shaun seemed to indicate they felt the writing had gone on for a considerable time as far as Charlotte was concerned the meeting had flew over. It felt good to be expected to give her opinion and have it listened to rather than having to keep it to herself until her need to express her disgust at the lack of imagination from some members of the creative team became too much and she had to interrupt. By contrast Daryl, Shaun and even, slightly more begrudgingly John, listen to her input and she found her ideas being genuinely accepted for the most part and even in cases where she was entirely outnumbered on some point at least listened to and discussed. She was mulling over this as she waited for the elevator and stepped in automatically, barely noticing the redheaded figure stepping in after her.

"Ummm, so I was wondering…" started a voice, snapping Charlotte out of her thoughts as she turned around to see Daryl standing next to her.

"…just, ummm, maybe if you've not got plan yet, we could go grab some food" he continued, desperately avoiding eye contact until the last word when he glanced up with a hopeful half smile.

"Oh. I've actually already got plans for tonight, meeting up with some old college friends for dinner, but maybe another time" lied Charlotte smoothly, initial shock at being asked out by a colleague on her second day quickly giving way to embarrassment at the assumption she had jumped to from what was probably a totally innocent attempt by her co-worker to help her settle in to her new home town which obliged her to continue "another night would be great though, thanks" before stepping out of the elevator and giving him a warm smile before heading off towards her car.


	5. Chapter 5

A few minutes later she found herself once again fumbling with a key outside the door to her apartment and adding 'buy an outside light' to the rapidly increasing list of errands she needed to do on her next day off.

"You really should put a light out here you know, I'll not always be out here to help you out" quipped a husky voice from a few feet away. Taking a deep breath Charlotte turned to see Jon smirking at her from his doorway, a lit cigarette hanging precariously from the side of his mouth. Before she had a chance to think of a reply he had already moved from his door way and sauntered casually towards her. Just as she was about to respond he was next to her, judging by his damp hair and smell of soap he had recently showered. Strands of wavy blonde hair hung in front of his piercing blue eyes and as she watched a bead of water ran off the front of his hair landing on his sculpted muscular chest and running down his smooth, golden stomach coming to rest on a sculpted hip bone before disappearing into the low waistband of his jeans. Just before her mind could wander too far off with her entirely inappropriate train of thought she was interrupted by Jon clearing his throat. She glanced up blushing and was greeted by those blue eyes smirking back at her.

"Give it here" he said, sounding somehow even huskier than usual as he stared at her unblinkingly.

"What?!" she asked shocked.

"Your key, give it here" he replied simply.

Releasing a breath she hadn't realised she was holding Charlotte passed the key over, her soft fingertips brushing against calloused underside of his palm as she placed the key into his hand trying to ignore the small fizzle passing through her fingertips as she grazed his hand. She watched silently as he smoothly unlocked the door and pushed it open before stepping back and gesturing for her to enter.

"Well thanks for that" she said pointedly, the gesture of being invited into her own apartment had not been lost on her. Good looking though he may be the man exuded cockiness and however tempted she forced herself to think about it logically and realise that however tempting he may seem at the moment when the next morning ended badly, as next morning's always seemed to for her, she would be living next to the embodiment of her embarrassment for the remainder of her time down here. It would appear that Jon either didn't share her embarrassment and concern or he simply chose to ignore it but he walked straight past her, flicking his cigarette onto the ground outside as he passed her, and straight into the kitchen of her apartment.

"You got any beer?" he asked sticking his head around from behind the fridge door and flicking his damp hair out of his face.

Charlotte gritted her teeth and took a deep breath before allowing herself to respond.

"No I don't, I've been here two days and I've spent most of it at work" she snapped.

As she looked up she seen his face change. His causal smirk was replaced by a cold glare as he slowly closed the fridge door and stared straight at her unblinking. Charlotte resisted the urge to look away as he slowly made his way towards her, pushing his hair back from is face as he did. Focussing on his face to avoid her gaze wandering back down his chest she could see his jaw tense as he reached her. Slowly he leant down so their faces were level and she felt herself unconsciously hold in her breath as his eyes searched hers out, one finger underneath her chin, not touching her but close enough that she found herself lifting her face up to meet his.

"Don't get snappy with me sunshine" he breathed, his eyes trailing down from her face, past her chest now rising and falling rapidly inside her sleeveless and down her fitted grey pencil skirt before following the same path back up to her eyes. Despite the rapidly spreading heat pooling in her stomach she forced herself to straighten her face and focus on his eyes, not allowing her gaze to wander or her head to lower for fear of touching his hand again if she lowered her chin. Sensing the inner battle she was facing she seen him smirk to himself before setting his jaw again and leaning as close as physically possible towards her face so that their lips were almost touching.

"I don't care what kind of power trip you pull on those guys in creative and every other asshole in this company, don't think for one second you're in charge of me lady. You can dress up all important in your pencil skirts and blouses and you can tie your hair up real nice like that and fool everyone else but don't for a single second think you're fooling me. You can play at being in charge all you like doll, but I saw the look on your face the first time you bumped into me in that foyer, you're not fooling me sunshine, not even a little bit" he breathed, his lips brushing so gently against hers as he spoke that she couldn't decide if it was his breath or if his lips really were that soft and that unexpectedly gentle.

I her mind had wandered inappropriately before it was nothing to the thoughts racing through her head right now. Standing in the doorway to her apartment, cornered between the door frame and the kitchen countertop by this man who seemed to tower over her in every possible way despite being less than half a foot taller in actuality she seemed to be completely devoid of every sensible thought she had ever had. All thoughts of awkward mornings were gone from her mind and in their place was nothing but a deep and burning need for him. A need to feel the same electricity she had felt when their hand touched outside to pass once again through her fingertips but to reach so much further this time. The need for him burned deep inside her and she felt as if somehow that tingling that seemed to emanate from his hand every time they touched as the only thing that would soothe it and at that moment nothing else matter. All thoughts of reputation be damned she need this man. Now.

Just as her mind was made up and she mentally steadied herself enough to tilt her face up further to meet his lips with hers he moved away. She felt as if the space around her, previously so full of his body and his heat was now filling with unnaturally cool air for the humid Florida night and she stared at him shocked. As the cooler air settled around her she was brought back to her sense and reminded herself who she was and why she was there, shocked at how easily this man had almost convinced her to throw all caution to the wind with his sheer presence. As she took a steadying breath her eyes found his again and she was surprised to see his cold glare had formed back into that infuriating smirk.

"Well, now that I've done my gentlemanly duties for the evening and got you into your apartment safely I guess I'll be off" he grinned stepping back and heading towards the door, turning back with a smirk before closing the door behind him leaving her alone in he suddenly empty feeling apartment with her mind once again racing with thoughts of this man she barely knew but yet couldn't stop thinking about.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks to everyone for all the reviews and follows. I really didn't think anyone would actually read this so I really appreciate all the support from you guys. I cant figure out if there's a way to reply to reviews directly so I just want to put a general 'thanks' to all out there._

_I also want to point out that I'm trying my best to stick to stand American phrases but a few English terms might slip out from time to time (calling a lift an elevator takes much more effort than it should) so try and just ignore it if it bothers anyone. Ditto to my English spellings.  
_

_Thanks again everyone and keep the reviews/favs/follows coming. :]_

* * *

Waking up the following morning Charlotte began to wonder if she would ever grow accustomed to the unbearable heat and humidity or if she was in fact doomed to spend her entire time in Florida waking up a sweaty irritable mess. As she flung back the thin covers and added across the hall to the bathroom it occurred to her that her irritability may not be entirely due to the heat as the memory of last night's encounter with her neighbour came back to her. She mentally scolded herself for allowing her mind to wander so early in the morning and resumed her usual morning routine of flicking through the days schedule while brushing her teeth. She noticed today was the talent meeting where they would be running through the schedule for this week's TV taping and thought that if nothing else at least the meeting would give her an opportunity to put faces to the long list of names she had been running through on repeat since learning about her move. She took extra care getting dressed, while she didn't want to look completely out of place she felt, as always, that she needed to gain the respect of her co-workers for the right reasons. She eventually settled on loose fitting, flared stone trousers coupled with a fitted white shirt before tying her hair back into a tight chignon. She hadn't had time to buy a new work wardrobe yet and mentally added 'buy more sleeveless blouses' to the ever increasing list of errands she would need to begin settling in to the new city.

Once she was dressed she headed out, glancing quickly over at the next door along before she headed across the car park to her rental car. The drive to the office went quickly, thanks in no small part to the exceptional air conditioning, and she soon found herself pulling into her now familiar parking spotting. As she waited for the elevator she smiled to herself, remembering her meeting with Colby and how excited he had been at finalising the storyline that would make him the first ever NXT champion. Today meeting was with all of the talent from NXT and the thought that Colby would ensure she had at least one friendly and familiar face there was oddly reassuring. Charlotte had never particular cared whether she was liked, despised or considered with indifference in her work but good working relations definitely made things run a bit smoother, especially considering that for a few of these guys it would be the first time they were hearing confirmation that Colby had been chosen to lead the brand in it's opening few months. As she exited the elevator she was greeted by a less than excited looking Daryl, holding a stack of papers on one arm and a tray of empty coffee cups on the other. His glanced up as the doors opened and his expression improved slightly when he realised who was keeping the doors open to get through.

"This is all your fault" he said with mock disdain "Shaun thought you'd go apeshit if we had the full roster in our office full of dirty dishes and 6 months' worth of FCW scripts so I've been demote to garbage collector" he continued with a grin.

"I'd say there's no need but Shaun's right, you guys are pigs" Charlotte responded with a smile, glad to see her influence was wearing off so quickly and that, even more importantly, the guys seemed to have some notion of respect for her, at least enough to try and meet her half way on the organisational front.

Daryl chuckled before nudging the ground floor button with his elbow as Charlotte turned and headed into the office. She was pleased to see that John and Shaun were already in the room and Daryl returned soon after, giving them some time to quickly run back through the scripts for what felt like the 1000th time as well as reiterating who needed to be told what in terms of anything outside of the set script. Just as they were finishing up the door burst open and Colby almost bounded through with a coffee in each hand. He handed one to Charlotte with a grin.

"This time I came prepared, and I thought I should give you a taste of what you're missing" he said with a grin.

Charlotte gratefully accepted the coffee, if this stuff gave her half the energy of the man now shifting his weight excitedly while looking out the window then it would be a miracle, but it had to be worth a try. Soon after the other Superstars and Divas began to arrive, some in small groups and some individually until it appeared as if everyone was there.

Charlotte stood up at the front of the room, regretting slightly her brainwave to push the table to the back of the room and line the chairs up in rows facing the front as all eyes turned towards her. She cleared her throat and everyone quietened down, an unexpected gesture she was massively grateful for. She introduced herself to the group, some of whom she recognised from their visit to the Connecticut office when they were being signed and the rest she just prayed had no questions which would allow her to embarrass herself by not having the faintest clue who the hell they were. Along with Daryl and Shaun, Charlotte began to run through the script for this week's show, she made it partway through the second match when the door swung open. As she glanced up her heart stopped for a moment when she saw familiar, piercing blue eyes staring at her from under honey blonde hair, drier than last night and curling messily across his forehead. Jon stared at her for a split second before breaking out into a smirk and simply raising an eyebrow at her.

"Can I help you?" Charlotte snapped, entirely confused by his sudden presence halfway through her meeting.

"Ummm, yeah, I guess I'm a bit late" he shrugged, walking fully into the room and draping himself over a chair at the back. "I'm just assuming I'm involved in the taping this week, yeah?" he added, staring straight at her with a slightly amused expression. Clearly she had underestimated how this guy was involved in the company and he now realised she had no idea how he was.

"Well I guess we'll find out, wont we" Charlotte said, refusing to give him the satisfaction of making her ask who he was.

His expression change, for a second that self-satisfied smirk was replaced with the hard glare of last night, from up close in her apartment that glare had seemed impossibly sexy but from this distance, in front of a room full of people it was anything but. Refusing to be intimidated Charlotte simply raised an eyebrow back at him and continued her run through of the script, watching him out of the corner of her eye each time a new name was brought up for any indication that he be mentioned on the script. As she reached the main event she allowed herself to breathe an internal sigh of relief that whoever this guy was, at least he wasn't on the roster yet, probably someone they were thinking about signing or one of the guys they were using as an extra, a backup for one of the opening dark matches maybe?

"And finally that brings us to the main event, Seth Rollins" she said, gesturing to Colby leaning against the wall near the front, his endless supply of energy seemingly preventing him from even sitting down for half an hour.

"Against Dean Ambrose" she finished. As she said it she glanced over just in time to see Jon giving a lazy wave to the group and felt her heart sink. Not only was this guy not just an extra in a dark match he was in the main event. There had been genuine discussions back in Stamford about giving him the title before the team had eventually settled on Colby and he was at the very least set to be heavily involved in the main event picture at NXT for the next few months. Her breath hitched in her throat as she made to carry on with the script and Daryl immediately popped up beside her with some water.

"Thanks" she spluttered.

"I'll take it from here" said Daryl, seemingly mistaken her choking as her simply losing her voice from running through the majority of the meeting herself. As she stepped back to allow Daryl to step forward and finish the meeting she looked back over, Jon's gaze had shifted with her and he was now paying no attention to the explanation of what they wanted from his match with Colby, instead he was staring at Charlotte with an amused expression. She quickly glanced away and focussed instead on Daryl's run through of the upcoming match, the words were simply washing over her though as she could still feel that ice cold stare focussing on the back of her head.

Suddenly she heard the scraping of chairs and realised that Daryl had stopped talking and the meeting was over. She turned around and began to organise the left over scripts and turn off the laptop they had setup for the meeting as the wrestlers filed out, along with Daryl and Shaun who were set to join some of them for lunch and John who had mentioned earlier that he was leaving straight after the meeting to try and catch his daughters school play.

As she turned around she almost collided for the second time with a solid expanse of chest underneath the cocky smirk looking down at her.

"I thought everyone had left" she blurted out.

"They have" he said simply gesturing behind him at the rows of empty chairs.

"I meant everyone including you" she replied bluntly. Anyone else might have had the decency to look embarrassed but Jon's smirk actually turned into a genuine smile as he chuckled at her obvious irritation.

"There's no need to be rude, Lottie" he grinned, stepping closer towards her and brushing the very tip of one finger so lightly across the top of her arm that she was unsure if the shiver came from the surprising lightness of his touch or the tingle of electricity that seemed to emanate from his fingertips. As she open her mouth to respond she heard a clatter behind her and both heads turned around to see a Shaun standing in the doorway looking as if he would rather be anywhere else in the world right now.

Before the smaller man had a chance to say anything Jon had stepped back, leaving Charlotte feeling once again colder without the heat of his body so inappropriately close to her, and turned himself towards the door.

"I left my phone" blurted Shaun, walking past them to the desk at the front of the room where Charlotte noticed an IPhone half hidden underneath the pile of excess scripts hastily abandoned on the surface.

"I guess I'll catch you around later, Lottie" Jon smirked as he headed towards the door leaving Charlotte in the room with an apologetic looking Shaun and the intense longing warmth he seemed to draw out of her every time their paths crossed.


End file.
